Friday update: BFF, bums, vote for Derrick Rose for award, art show, Roma

Got to the Saucer about 9 last night… the Dempseys were already setting up for their show.  My BFF and her mini-me (my BFFMM?) were both working so there was a hell of a lot of attitude to deal with.  I printed out my receipts for my 3 plate beers and moved to the band room, where my BFF immediately ran over and said, “I’M CLOSING.  SO I’LL BE YOUR SERVER.  WHAT DO YOU WANT.”  Although, for once I actually was in her section, as opposed to normal when I’m not even in the same room as her section when she grabs my tab.  Once I settled in, she apparently thought I wasn’t drinking fast enough (meaning, not running up my tab, and therefore her tip, fast enough) and said, “You’re being a vagina tonight.”  Shut up, douche bag.  Later in the evening she told me she did a 3-mile run from her Midtown apartment to the Blue Monkey and back and nearly died.  God.  What a wuss.  I know I’m out of shape due to drinking all the time, but even I could do that run.  She should give up running and just accept that she’s going to get fat.  Heh… then my BFF will be a BBW.

Hell I’ll even throw out a challenge… if I can’t keep pace with her on that run I’ll pick up her bar tab for an entire night.

So I sat and listened to the Dempseys with UT fan Frank and two girls who wish to go unnamed but I will say that they have the same name.  Unfortunately Frank was at the bar getting another beer when they played the “cities, states, towns and counties” medley that included “Rocky Top,” so he didn’t get to see the hand gesture that I did to that song.  At one point, bass player “Slick” Joe Fick said, “Raise your glass if you love Romanian girls,” and I raised my glass high.  Always nice to be recognized from the stage.

The two girls who were there with Frank tried to convince me to let them be guest bloggers once or twice a week.  “Your blog needs a female perspective,” they told me.  “We bet half your readers are female.”  Half?  I’d bet closer to 70%.  Ladies love Professor Paul.  Maybe that could be my rapper name – L-squared-P-squared.  Anyway, they told me what they would write about in a blog.  “See, when you write about Circa’s happy hour, we want to read about that,” they told me.  “When you write about what beers you drank last night, we don’t care.”

Which reminds me… beer report is temporarily delayed.  I know what 3 beers I drank last night – St. Peter’s Ale, Pilsner Urquell draft, Red Stripe bottle – but I failed to write down the prices.  I’ll have to get them when I go back there tonight.  So tomorrow there will be a double beer report.

I told the girls I’d think about the guest blogging thing.  I reminded them that if I let them do it, any post they write during the month of June has to reference tube tops, since that’s Tube Top Month.  “That’s fine, we’ll post pictures of ourselves in tube tops!” they said.  Hmmm, I may be warming up to this “guest blogging” idea.

Heh heh heh… look at all this crap you had to wade through to get to the real news.  First item of business… turns out I was off base when I reported that the Downtown security patrols beginning in April will cover only the Main Street Mall between Adams and Beale.  Actually, the CCC’s security director tells me, the patrols will be bounded by Front on the west and Second on the east.  That’s good news because Second is a much bigger problem than Main once you get south of Monroe, especially evenings and weekends.  The bums love to do the “tour guide,” “flower man/woman,” “bum-brella,” and “selling free magazines” gimmicks there.  Hopefully security can bring them under control.

Derrick Rose of the Memphis Tigers is up for the Bob Cousy Award, an award for outstanding college point guard.  Fan voting is taking place now… go here to vote for Derrick.

There’s an art gallery exhibit opening going on tonight from 6 to 8 at 2553 Broad, next door to The Cove.  The Art Butcher sent details, and because I’m a lazy m.f. I’m just going to copy and paste rather than attempt a summary.  Formatting may be a bit off, apologies in advance.  Like anyone is even still reading after 28 paragraphs of BFF crap.

> Material is pleased to present its third exhibition of 2008:  Hans
> Schmitt-Matzen:  The Lace of History.  The exhibition will run for one night
> only with a reception on Friday, February 29th from 6-8 pm.
>
>
>
> A Nashville based artist, Hans Schmitt-Matzen has displayed his work in
> group exhibitions throughout the country and will be included in the
> upcoming Tennessee Abstract Painters show at Cheekwood Botanical Garden and
> Museum of Art.
>
>
>
> The Lace of History will present a cross section of two related series of
> artworks. Several of the works will be from the Loop series, a collaboration
> with photographer Gieves Anderson. The works in the Loop series comprise a
> two-part cycle. In the first part, one of Anderson’s photographs is selected
> to conceptually and formally influence the path of Schmitt-Matzen’s
> painting. The combination of these photographic and painted elements amounts
> to a finished work that is the first part of the sequence. After the
> completion of the first phase, Anderson begins the second stage by
> converting the first piece back into a photograph. The resulting photograph
> then stimulates another painting that becomes the second phase and
> establishes a cycle of cause-and-effect relationships within and between the
> works. This closed system metaphorically reenacts art’s history—in which all
> that is made is influenced by what preceded it.
>
> Schmitt-Matzen will also show his personal investigation of other aesthetic
> paths that Anderson’s photographs might have traveled in his Tangent series.
> With this project, Hans has sought to engender a web of causality more
> complex than the linear relationships recognizable in the Loop series. These
> works allow each cause to have more than one effect, broadening the scope of
> the overall artistic system to bring it in sync with the complexity that
> exists in the world.
>
>
>
> Hans received his BFA from Middle Tennessee State University in 2003 and has
> subsequently become an active constituent in the Nashville arts community.
> He is on the board of directors for the Fugitive Art Center, a nonprofit
> curatorial organization exhibiting artworks nationally and internationally.
> Hans is currently employed at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts as an
> exhibition designer.
>
>
>
> Material is located at 2553 Broad Avenue.  Parking is available on both the
> north and south sides of Broad Avenue.

Be sure to stop by The Cove and have one of their hand-made mixed drinks after the gallery show.  That’s a can’t-miss.

Roma Pizza & Pasta at Third and Court is reviewed in the Commercial Appeal today.

The Red Rooster called me and told me I won a Backstage Pass party – if I can bring 10 or more people between 5 and 7 tonight, I get free admission and a free happy hour buffet.  I’m not even going to bother trying… half my friends work in East Bumblefuck and there’s no way I’ll be able to get everyone rounded up before 7.  Plus I don’t want to start drinking that early.  I do plan on checking out the Rooster tonight though.  I’ve gone 3 times with groups; this time I want to go by myself and see if I enjoy the club on those terms.  That’s an important test for a club.  Probably I’ll be there sometime between 11 and 1.  Other places that may see me tonight:  Circa, the Saucer (a given since I have to do my beers), Trolley Tour, Calhoun’s, Earnestine & Hazel’s.  And of course Raiford’s always looms as a possibility.  I have drunk Raiford’s limo photos that I need to post.

Still need to get bum photos.  I’ll probably do bum patrol tomorrow afternoon, interrupting the patrol around 3 to knock out my plate beers and watch the game.

Happy birthday to one of my favorite waitresses who is a February 29 girl.  She wanted me to give her $100 for her birthday.  Yeah I don’t see that happening.  A mention on my blog is worth $100 right?

Time for work… still enjoying it there, although I’ll never totally adjust to a start time earlier than 10.  Have a good weekend everyone… if I come up with more stuff there’ll be a lunchtime post.